Albrecht von Graefe

Biography

• Born 22 May 1828 Finkenheerd, Brandenburg. Son of the German surgeon Karl Ferdinand von Gräfe (1787-1840)
• 1847 – Graduated Medicine, Berlin
• 1854 – Founded the Jounral Archiv für klinische und experimentelle Ophthalmologie
• 1857 – Founded the Deutsche Ophtalmologische Gesellschaft [German Ophthalmological Society]
• 1857 – Associate professor of ophthalmology
• 1866 – Professor of ophthalmology
• Died 20 July 1870

Medical Eponyms

Graefe sign (1864)

Failure of the upper lid to follow a downward movement of the eyeball when the patient changes his or her vision from looking up to looking down. von Graefe considered it pathognomonic in exophthalmic goitre (Basedow disease)

Other Eponyms

• Adson-Graefe forceps – 125mm tissue forceps
• Usher syndrome – Autosomal recessive disease characterized by retinitis pigmentosa and sensorineural deafness. von Graefe first reported the combination of retinitis pigmentosa and perceptive deafness in 1858. Usher posthumously reviewed the research of his mentor E Nettleship and defined combined heritability for blindness and deafness in an article describing the pathology and inheritance of 69 cases in 1914. [1914;19:122-236]

Key Medical Attributions

Von Graefe died aged 42 from pulmonary tuberculosis. During his short career he made significant contributions to the field of ophthalmology including; describing sudden visual loss due to retinal artery embolism; optic retinitis; iridectomy in angle closure; alternate cataract incision from the lower to the upper cornea; initiated visual field testing, and performed over 10,000 operations in his clinic in Berlin.

Major Publications

• von Graefe A. Exeptionelles Verhalten des Gesichtfeldes bei Pigmentartung der Netzhaut. In: Vereinzelte Beobachtungen und Bemerkungen. Archiv für klinische und experimentelle Ophthalmologie. 1858;4:250-253 [Usher syndrome]
• von Graefe A. Therapeutische Miscellen. 1863
• von Graefe A. Über Basedow’sche Krankheit. Deutsche Klinik, 1864;16:158-160 [Graefe sign]
• von Graefe A. Beiträge zur Pathologie und Therapie des Glaucoms. 1869

Controversies

• Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst Albrecht von Gräfe – most often Anglicized to Graefe

References

• Michaelis E. Albrecht von Graefe, sein Leben und Wirken. Reimer 1877
• Hirschberg J. Albrecht von Graefe. Weicher 1906
• Perera CA. Albrecht von Graefe, founder of modern ophthalmology: His life and works. Arch Ophthalmol. 1935; 14(5):742-773.
• Usher CH. On the inheritance of retinitis pigmentosa, with notes of cases. Royal London Ophthalmological Hospital Report. 1914;19:122-236.
• El-Sedfy A, Chamberlain RS. Surgeons and their tools: a history of surgical instruments and their innovators. Part IV: pass me the forceps. Am Surg. 2015 Feb;81(2):124-7. [PMID 25642872]